TMG Survey Finds Fraud, Card Brand Requirements Prompting Move to EMV

Reducing fraud and meeting liability shift deadlines from the major card networks in 2015 are the big reasons for planning the move to EMV-enabled cards, according to credit unions surveyed by The Members Group.

The Des Moines, Iowa, card processor, an affiliate of the Iowa Credit Union League, said 59 of its 90 targeted clients, or 66%, responded to a recent survey and that 62% of them cited fraud and major card network requirements for the need to develop an EMV strategy.

“Nearly 14% of TMG’s clients cite travelers as the primary reason their financial institution is looking to issue EMV cards,” TMG added in a release this week about the survey.

The survey found that 59% of TMG clients are going to use chip-and-PIN cards, while 39% said they had not yet decided between chip-and-PIN or chip-and-signature cards. Forty-five percent said their smart cards would also support both contact and contactless payments.

The $8.3 billion Alliant – United Airlines Employees’ Credit Union until 2003 – is now fully implementing EMV technology with TMG, the company and credit union said.

“While we are, of course, interested in the additional fraud protection promised by EMV, the primary driver for us is our member experience overseas,” Hatten-Kissick said. “More kiosks and unmanned terminals in international locations are EMV-enabled, creating a significant challenge for mag-stripe cardholders.”

Visa and MasterCard have set October 2015 as the date at which they will shift fraud liability to the least secure entity, and the TMG survey found that only 37% of its respondents plan to have adopted EMV by then.

Another 52% were undecided and TMG said it anticipates the great majority of the undecided FIs will make the shift to EMV prior to October 2015 and that most will firm up their implementation strategies within the next 12 months.